MINERAL KINGDOM. J 



speculations to purposes of practical utility. It is suf- 

 ficient for the young student of Natural History to 

 know, that in every case in which he can be in doubt 

 whether he has found a plant or one of the lower 

 orders of animals, the simple experiment of burning 

 will decide the question. The smell of a burnt bone, 

 coralline, or other animal substance, is so peculiar that 

 it can never be mistaken, nor does any known vege- 

 table give out the same odour. 



The Mineral Kingdom can never be confounded 

 with the other two. Fossils are masses of mere dead 

 unorganized matter, subject to the laws of chemistry 

 alone ; growing indeed, or increasiog by the mecha- 

 nical addition of extraneous substances, or by the laws 

 of chemical attraction, but not fed by nourishment 

 taken into an organized structure. Their curious 

 crystallization bears some resemblance to organization, 

 but performs none of its functions, nor is any thing 

 like a vital principle to be found in this department 

 of Nature. 



If it be asked what is this vital principle, so essential 

 to animals and vegetables, but of which fossils are 

 destitute, we must own our complete ignorance. We 

 know it, as we know its Omnipotent Author, by its 

 effects. 



Perhaps in the fossil kingdom heat may be equi- 

 valent to a vital principle; but heat is not the vital 

 principle of organized bodies, though probably a con- 

 sequence of that principle. 



